Okay everyone, I've written a roleplaying-style response below. Let me just state that any disasters that take place are in no way intentional. The game has been very slow with one month taking roughly 2-3 hours to play.
The Journals of 'Kiri':1st of FelsiteFinally! At long last I've been granted leadership over my very own own outpost! I knew it was just a matter of time before he noble elders of the mountainhome finally recognized my leadership skills. After all, I didn't wait outside in that waiting lobby for over 60 seasons for no reason at all! The receptionist said it would take awhile and she wasn't kidding! I saw many other dwarf arrive and enter and leave with assignments, but like the elders said when they finally met me, “None of them were being given the opportunity to lead such a great places as The City of Midorducim”. I don't know what those strange secretive looks were that the elders gave to each other but they've told me this fortress is a recently established outpost and on the forefront of dwarven technology! I can't wait to see the place!
4th of FelsiteOh by the gods! I nearly didn't leave the mountainhome. But the Fortress Guards told me if I didn't step out at that very instant the elders would re-assign me to kitchen scrap duty! The moment I stepped out into that horrible blue abyss they slammed the door behind me, I promptly fell to the ground and threw up. I spent the next 3 days inches from the mountainhome entrance, holding onto the dirt with all my strength and hoping that I wouldn't fall into that blue void. After those three days I felt someone kick me in the side. I moaned and asked the ground who it was. “I'm the head merchant, we're passing 'Powerworks', if you have the strength to get up you'd better come along”. I found the strength to crawl into the awaiting wagon and spent several weeks shivering and trying not to be sick. He stopped a week later and showed me a dirt road, telling me that the outpost was just a day's travel away. He handed me a backpack and wineskin and with a flick of the reigns rode away.
14th of FelsiteI had conquered my sickness but not my fear of the sky on the ride, I walked with my head down and walked mindlessly along the road. It was nearing evening a day later when I heard it. A ...rustling. What was that sound? Where was it coming from? What was it! I looked around on the ground but saw nothing, I looked at the height of my waist, but saw nothing! Meanwhile the noise continued, it scratched at the air. Finally I began to look up and saw a tall brown creature before me! Oh gods, what was it?! It was so tall, I looked up and up and up and saw that this creature reached up into the horrible sky itself! What sort of horrible monster was this to reach up towards the sky?! Oh...oh no, there wasn't just one of them, there were many of them! The creatures had already surrounded me, lining up on both sides of the road and stretching back as far as I could see. They were hideous things with cracked brown skin and horrible green-haired limbs! Not knowing what I could do but flee I ran down the road as fast as I could but somehow there were always more of them ahead of me!
I ran for hours but there were no end to the wooden creatures. Finally, I reached a rise and looked down the road. The sight before me was a comforting one indeed, I could see the cavernous entrance of a mountainhome a mile away. And, I saw with relief, they had recognized the threat posed by those wooden creatures and laid fire to them. I saw a comforting ash-wasteland before me littered with the debris of wooden and non-wooden bodies.
1st of Hematite 1061Upon arrival the dwarfs instantly recognized me as a capable leader. They gave me finely crafted purple robes to wear and a fancy title then left me alone so that I may tour the facility.
First Reactions: What....The....Fuck...
This fortress isn't modern at all! They don't know the first thing about efficient stock-flow management! It's a good thing I'm here to help out and tell them how they're doing it wrong. I entered the meeting hall and stood atop a platform so that I may address the crowd. Many took a look at my purple robes and then went back to their conversation, I don't know what that means. As I tried to speak over their conversation many didn't seem to pay me any attention and when I finished one dwarf named “LegoLord” came up and told me I was doing a good job and if I would like to see my office now. The other dwarfs at the meeting hall cheered us as we left, strange.
10th of HematiteI was told today that the human merchants have arrived. I didn't think much of it until later a dwarf came along and had a strange look on his face, he asked whether or not I was coming to talk to the human diplomat. Oh! But of course, they need me to speak with the humans as the Dwarven representative! I swelled with pride as I realized what an important function I held. I told them “I'll be there, right after, *rumbling crashing sound*, errrm, what was that?”. Listening to it for a moment the strange dwarf named “name here” told me “Oh, that. Sounds like a cave-in. Some idiot might have actually followed your mining orders, what a fool”. With that he left leaving me standing there with my jaw hanging open.
12th of HematiteToday I noticed the a dwarf body laying on the floor nearby the underground-river bridge. When I pointed it out to a dwarf he just shrugged and went on with his business. Standing back to watch for some time I noticed that no one else seemed to see it. Everyone trudged past it without ever giving it a glance. I find it strange, I wonder...am I the only one who sees it?! *shudder* No, that thought is too sick to contemplate.
13th HematiteWhile in my office today a guard came barging in. He just threw my door open without even knocking or announcing his presence! He told me that Deler Zokunakrul, the Armorsmith has gone berserk and was in the process of attacking everything in sight inside the Jailor's room. I told him to “Handle it” and “make it quick”. He looked at me strangely after that last bit then left, I wasn't sure what that meant. Later in the day I heard through passing conversation that Deler had died when the guards were trying to subdue him.
19th of HematiteWe have finalized our trade. The foolish humans took our giant-sized rotting clothes for glorious booze!
15 of MalachiteAs today was my day off I spent some time viewing the various fort engravings. One in particular stood out, mostly because of its location and subject. Engraved upon the floor at the very doorway to the underground-river bridge was the image of a goblin striking down a fellow dwarf. I spent the day staring at it in sick fascination.
18th of MalachiteThe other nobles won't stop changing the price of goods! It's madness! I was just about to purchase a nice soft pig-tail dress when some fancy-pantsy noble comes running up saying “Stop! Stop! You can't possibly afford that!”. “What? It's only 68 gold coins!” I told the Governor. “Noooo, I'm changing the price! That dress now costs 800 gold coins!” he shouted at me while shoving me aside. With my eyes practically bugging out of my head I exclaimed to him and the shop-keeper “I can't afford that, nobody could!”. Giggling the bastard turned to the shop-keeper and handed over a stack of 1800 coins to purchase the very dress I had in my hands.
4th of LimestoneI no longer see the dwarf body on the floor near the river. Perhaps his soul has move on, or perhaps I like the others have conditioned myself not to see it.
9th of LimestoneA jeweler with a horribly mangled left leg has gone insane today. He walks around his room babbling incoherently, I ask the Fortress Guards to ...subdue him. But, they tell me they can't do anything about it! Apparently he hasn't broken any laws. We'll see about that, I'll be watching him closely.
12th of LimestoneIlrad the Metalsmith has drowned today when he decided to swim in the underground river. Perhaps I should mandate swimming lessons...
18th of LimestoneA dwarf mentioned to me “Why haven't you built yourself a fancy-pants tomb like all the other rulers?” After initially thinking “Why?” I thought it over a bit more and decided it was an excellent idea. Something with scythes and,horribly sharp, bladed traps.
11th of SandstoneI noticed the first signs of something green to poke through the ash-wasteland outside the City of Midorducim today. Horrors! The wood monster are returning! Even now they plot and burrow through the very soil itself to encroach on our city! Babbling I asked our military leaders how they destroyed the wood menace previously. Confused they asked me to tell them “what the hell I was talking about”. As I described the horrible sky-reaching monsters to them dread realization finally came to their faces and they whispered to each other “trees, he's talking about trees”. Finally on the same page I asked them how they destroyed the “tree” army previously. They hesitantly pointed out a lever off the main hallway which I quickly told a dwarf standing nearby to pull.
I did it properly however and forbid access to outside refuse and to access outside itself. I patiently looked out the door's peep-hole for the moment when I would see the “trees” burn. But soon a craftsman ran up to me sweating profusely and panting! He said their was disaster in the deeps near the “lava cannon”! I ordered him to pull the lever and deactivate the device while I rushed to see what was happening.
Horror! The device had destroyed the auxiliary trade-post and was flooding in through the very same auxiliary tunnel! I screamed to the dwarf scrambling into the workshop chamber to close the door, but he screamed back “It's stuck open!”. Blanching, I realized the magma would soon be in the workshops and from there spread throughout the entire fortress. With a quick calculation I rushed out the workshop doors and locked/barred them shut, leaving the dwarfs inside to their fates but saving the rest of the fortress until the magma receded.
5 dwarfs die, including 'iluogo', but the fortress is saved. Early reports say the magma no longer flows from the “lava-cannon” and should soon recede from the outside as well.
13th of SandstoneA great cheer went up in the hallways this afternoon. I came outside my office and asked a passing peasant what was happening and he happily said “Kel Kilrudegen, the fortress broker, has finally bled to death!”. He cheered and and ran away, shouting “Party!”. I wonder how this came to happen as the broker had always been with a broken arm, but he had never been bleeding. Perhaps it was best not to think too long or hard on the subject.
(So, as you can see above I pulled the lava-cannon lever to see it in action. I did it properly and forbidded all from going outside or from picking up outside refuse to stop path-errors from spamming me and slowing the game. However, for some reason, the new trade depot and tunnel were right in the path of the lava cannon with an entryway too wide for doors. Realizing this I tried to have the trade-depot door close but it was stuck open. As the lava flowed into the workshop area I locked its doors to save the fort. And, as you see I turned the lava gun off and watched it spawn an anti-flow. It was at this point I left for to make a sandwich while the game ran. The game was running at such a crawl I was not devoting all my attention to it, it was taking over 3 hours to run one month by this point. When I returned this is what greeted me. I'm still not quite sure how it happened.)
From the journals of 'Mister' Limulum, Grand Overseer of Powerworks:10th of TimberTo this day me and the others are unsure on how it all happened. The great flaming occured sometime on the 13th of Sandstone, the same day the peasants organized a party inside the dining room to celebrate the broker's death. I hear near all of the fortress was attending or at least on duty at this time. Me and the other survivors were either mining the deep areas or working the magma furnaces and so escaped the lava and fires. We cannot reach the areas of Powerworks past the cave river or the fortress entrance. All we know of how it started is from the stories of Udib the farmer who escaped the blaze with mortal injuries. It had been two days since the near 'lava-cannon' disaster but the fortress was thought to be saved by the quick thinking of that insane leader “Kiri”. He had not allowed anyone to go outside, nor unlocked the doors, but we knew the magma had receded in the workshop chambers because the doors no longer glowed red from the heat. However, none thought to check the doors leading outside, it was just assumed the magma had receded. No one was allowed outside so its unkown how the doors were opened but to this day everyone believes that is how the lava entered our great city. The lava spilled into the main hallways and cut off both the living quarters, dining hall, and barracks. Every person ahead of the cave river perished quickly as they were either asleep in their quarters or barracks, or attending the party. In fact since this was the main job hub of the City nearly the entire population perished. The sole survivors number at ten including me. We're unsure to this day how many died...but the number is estimated to be near 136. I go on and try to organize the survivors. Luckily, past leaders had the fore-sight to keep a food-store near the magma furnaces. I'm commissioning a kitchen to be built and hope to keep the remaining dwarfs alive. Perhaps its because of their drive to survive despite the odds but strangely enough neither I or the other dwarfs comtemplate the loss of our loved ones. We're dedicated to the act of carrying on and living.
To keep the other survivors from getting distracted I've forbidden as many dwarfs as possible to any other accessible parts of the fort. Today I set off to the former lava-cannon to try and find a reason for the destruction of our City.
16th of TimberI've found something amazing! Though, I'm still not sure what it means. The lava-cannon channels are bone dry! There is no lava in them at all! I have no clue how to explain this, but, it does mean one thing. While there may be lingering magma inside the former fortress and outside in the world it is not a “perma-flood”. Though...if its not a permanent flood...why is there still magma outside? *sigh* In the end, this raises more questions than it does answers.
(As stated I closed down all doors accessing the areas before the cave-river to prevent the remaining dwarfs from killing themselves. I set about trying to seriously keep the fortress alive. Surprisingly there was not tantrems and everyone was in good spirits. Unfortunately, out of 10 dwarfs two were nobles. But, at least they were females
. Confusedly, lava remained both outside and in the fortress areas before the river. It flows from place to place constantly and randomly. No new lava joins it and it makes contact with the river constantly, turning to steam. However, it seems that whenever the lava flows in two directions it splits into two equal amounts that are the same as the previous amount. So, although the lava has had an anti-flow generated it continues to shift and move in random patterns)
From the record of Doren Rigothcerol, Peasant22nd of TimberWe discovered the Grand Overseer's journals today, lying abandoned by the dry shaft he called “a lava-cannon”. Unfortunately, we never found his body. Theres none left who know of what he refers to when he says “perma-flood” and other words. His journals confuse us and I'm afraid they'll be abandoned and lost. We try to struggle on but some are beginning to lose hope.
(*sigh* despite my best efforts to keep everyone alive they have spited me. People kept dying without me knowing how, as you can see with the Grand Overseer. I finally figured out how as this peasant here went trotting down the former lava channels and took the three different doors to one entrance I hadn't noticed since there were so many other things crowded around it. He opens the door...and promptly burns to death, idiot.)
From the Journals of a Id Nirudib, Governor14th of Opal, 1061Where is everybody? I asked for three crowns to be made...
12th of ObsidianI admired a fine door today, it was quite enjoyable.
(Okay, heres the lowdown. The Governess is the last dwarf still alive but she is quite comfortable. I believe the food left behind will likely spoil and go bad before she eats it all because theres alot there for one dwarf. She's comfortable and quite un-insane, right >.> . But, she's a gods-damned Noble!! I say,sacrifice her to Armoke and reclaim the damn place).
save:
http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=865